Suburban
MARLBOROUGH residents have lambasted the City of Harare’s proposal to demand as much as US$10 000 from house owners who built on stands acquired illegally to have their properties regularised querying where the councillors were in the first place when the home seekers were building on illegal land.
Suburban Reporter
A recent full council meeting heard the proposed regularisation fees from the Acting Director of Works who had suggested that residents pay $50 000 for houses in high density suburbs, $200 000 for houses in medium density suburbs and $500 000 for houses in low density suburbs.
But the councillors at the full council meeting held towards the end of last year shot down the local currency proposals and instead suggested that the regularisation fees should be in foreign currency with residents in low density suburbs paying US$10 000, medium density suburb residents US$6 000 and high density suburb residents US$2 000.
In discussions on their social media groups, Ward 41 residents said there should be zero tolerance to illegal settlements and the regularisation fees would not act as a deterrent measure to illegal settlements mushrooming all over the capital city.
“I feel that this ‘regularisation’ process is not serving the deterrent measure it’s supposed to effect. If I build a (US) $500 000 house, what’s (US) $10 000?
“There just needs to be a zero tolerance approach to this scourge. Build in the wrong place, the line of people who approved it must be dealt with and the house must be demolished, regardless of who built where,” reasoned one resident.
Residents said if the regularisation was allowed to proceed Harare will be left with no wetlands as land developers will develop and sell stands on every open space available in the city because they will just pay the regularisation fees while others felt council was just bent on collecting money without matching the revenue collection with service delivery.
The councillors resolved that houses built on institutional sites reserved for schools, clinics and libraries, as well as on wetlands will also not be regularised.
The City of Harare has embarked on a regularisation exercise in areas where stand owners built their houses without following proper procedures.
The suburbs or houses to be regularised include those with either approved or unapproved layout designs, sewer designs, water designs and road designs.
Some of the property owners are already paying rates to the municipality while in some cases the City of Harare has already put up infrastructure and services such as schools, clinics and council sub offices where residents can pay their rates and service charges.
The municipality says some of the illegal stands did not go through the requisite change of reservation processes and some stands were developed and allocated without layout plan approvals.
According to council, some of the layouts did not follow proper planning processes but had been approved and allocated.
In Ward 16 some parts of Matidoda and Lenana Park are badly affected flooding during the rainy season each time heavy rains fall in the area.
Residents in the two suburbs say water flows into their houses damaging property while residents in the lower parts of the two suburbs are forced to relocate when heavy rains persist.
Matidoda and Lenana Park are built on a wetland and underground water has blocked the drainage pipes resulting in the area experiencing floods since 1999 when the two suburbs were developed.
Council reportedly cannot provide any services in the two suburbs as they are alleged to have been built without approved plans from the City of Harare and the suburbs have no certificates of compliance.
Residents say every rainy season they have to endure hard times as rain water fills their houses damaging household property.
A few years ago, residents’ representatives engaged council in order to acquire the certificates of compliance so that council gets to provide services in the two suburbs.
The two suburbs have incomplete roads and storm water drains because roads are yet to be handed over to the City of Harare by the developer.
